You Can't Take It With You
by LittleMissSnark
Summary: Things change when Gil walks Sara home,but she's not sure how to take it...OneShot semispoilery for S6! Please Read & Review!


Disclaimer: Come on, why even kid myself about owning this?

So...Instead of writing the conclusion to **Black Sweat** (about that...heheheh) This kind of popped in my head

I PROMISE my conclusion will be up soon, but you'll see why this was eating me up

I guess you could call it semi-spoilery...but it's just a take on something that might, or might not happen in the series

I hope you like it, and review to your heart's content!

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**You Can't Take It With You**

_My Lord…. I can't believe this is actually happening_

Sara Sidle had thought about this moment for years. Never in her wildest fantasies had she dreamed that her boss, Gil Grissom, would personally take her home. It'd been a long case for everyone, and Gil offered her a ride to her apartment so she wouldn't "be so alone," as Grissom had put it earlier upon his offer. Sara was shell-shocked, but conceded to him, giving into her own interest. She wanted to know his motives, and why after all these years he was finally chancing the opportunity to be with her, alone, nowhere near any sort of crime scene or police department. She was the cat, and her curiosity was killing her.

She sat in the passenger's seat of his black Denali, and stared out at the lights of the Insomniac's Playground she called home. She couldn't make eye contact with him; it was all just a little too much for her. Her eyes averted the connection, and a feeling of uncomfortable twisting began to develop deep inside her stomach. Gil finally parked a few blocks from her apartment at the closest parking structure with vacancies, and before she could do it herself, he'd swung around to open her door out of chivalry.

"Thank you." She said quietly as she stepped out of the car, in dangerously close proximity to her supervisor, who hadn't moved since she'd exited the Denali.

"You're welcome," He replied in his gruff, wisdom-imparted voice that seemed laced with something else foreign to Sara. She once again dodged his eyes, looking instead at his steely hair and sliding away from his body. She didn't turn her head, but paused so Gil could walk up the curb next to her.

They walked down the gray paved sidewalk in a state quite similar to their car ride: total silence. Though it was spring in Las Vegas, the brisk air of the early morning crept in through her navy sweater and pinstripe pants, chilling her to the bone. She couldn't bring herself to say anything at all, her mind clouded from lack of sleep and an even greater lack of understanding of why suddenly Grissom had become so…warm to her. He'd kept her at arms' length for so long, she didn't know how to feel being less than a foot away from him, her right shoulder coming into contact with his left periodically as they slowly walked side by side. A bemused look marred her features, and Grissom looked at her imploringly.

"Sara, is there something wrong?" Grissom asked as they kept their pace, inching ever closer to Sara's apartment at the end of the block.

"Nothing's wrong," Sara covered up, "I guess I'm just thinking."

She let out a breath she had no idea she was holding, and finally looked in his eyes. _He looks like he's sympathizing with me_, Sara noted, _He looks like he wants to protect me_. She was lost in his icy blue eyes for a brief moment before touching back down to earth. She stopped, and made a gesture indicating this is the place where she would leave him.

"Well, here's my place." Sara smiled weakly in an attempt to seem quasi-cordial. She went to shake his hand, but retracted it, fearing that she would come off too awkward with the situation at hand.

"I know" Grissom said in his trademark stoic and sandpaper-like tone. He stared at her, and she couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows. He continued to stand in front of her, hands in his pockets, deep in thought. _Why isn't he saying goodbye? Why isn't he leaving me?_

She turned around and walked a few steps to her apartment.

"Wait, Sara." The words exploded out of his mouth in quite possibly the first time Sara had ever seen her boss act out of impulse. She stopped and turned to face him again, walking back down to be level with him. She was drawn to him, and the idea that maybe he really had something important to tell her, something he'd been refusing for years.

"Sara, there's something I need to tell you." Grissom confessed to her with an earnest tone. He looked up and her in much the same sense of a poor man praying to an altar. She looked at his almost-pitiful state, and her heart began to hurt. She didn't know what to do, but she stilted her movements, preparing herself for him.

_Oh my God, It's…it's happening_, Sara's mind flew into complete shock, her reality slowing down to a point in which each second felt like a long year. She held her breath unconsciously, and waited for him to continue.

"Sara," He began, "It doesn't have to be this way. I know I've hurt you before, and I regret ever doing so. You deserve better, and I've been waiting for the right time to say that I'm ready for you. I am, Sara, I'm ready for you."

Sara looked into Grissom's icy blue eyes, her guard slowly melting. She couldn't move; her body had become frozen with his overpowering gaze. He grabbed her hand with both of his, and leaned into her.

"I'm ready to give you the world, Sara. I want to be with you." He looked at her with an intensity she'd never seen before. She studied his features, her eyes slowly welling up with tears. She was overwhelmed, exhausted, and broadsided by Grissom's public declaration of love. He looked as if the next logical step would be to seal his speech with a kiss. A kiss that Sara had been thinking about since she'd come to Las Vegas. A kiss that could change the outcome of their relationship to something Sara wanted over three years prior. She looked at him.

Then, she let go of his hand and stepped away from their dangerous position.

"Gil…. Grissom…. I can't do that." Sara said with an unusual firmness. She felt crimson creep into her cheeks as Grissom stared at her with a look she'd never seen before. He looked honestly confused, unable to cope with her words.

"Sara," He reasoned, "I want to protect you."

Sara began shaking her head, running her fingers through her coffee-colored hair. She slowly backed away from him, incapable of standing so close to him. She felt the heat from him, and it was burning her. She had to step away from the sweltering proximity.

"I don't think you understand me, Grissom." She said, standing up for her own delicacy. She looked at him with intensity, engaging another war with his fixed gaze. "It's been three years since I first told you my feelings. And now, after all this time, you want me? How am I supposed to react?" She was getting angry, and she new she needed to calm herself. She was going to fly out of control, and she didn't want to hurt him.

"I know I did that to you, Sara, and I'm sorry. I've changed." Grissom said, climbing up the steps in front of her apartment to invade the physical fortress she'd built up. He looked at her with that look again, and this time she turned away.

"You haven't changed, Gil," She replied to him with a hint of defiance, "You say you'd give me the world, you say you'd protect me. But, will you?"

"Yes."

"See…I don't know," Sara explained, "For over twenty years, you've let the lab run your life. Everyone is just evidence to you, a bundle of quirks with skin and bacteria. People are just giant puzzles in your mind, but I'm not a puzzle. I'm a real person, Gil, a real person with feelings and wants and needs, and it was selfish of you to think that you could turn me away so long ago and expect me to wait for you. You live your life in the lab, hovering over a microscope. But, in the real world, you can't take it with you. You'd be giving me the world, but when the lab **is** your world, you'd just be giving me heartache."

"Sara," Gil said in a shocked tone, "I would never do that to you." In an open-mouthed stare, he moved to reach the pallid skin of her forearm, bathed in the twilight. He felt the smoothness of her skin, but she shrank away, closer and closer to her escape at the front door.

"But, you see Gil," Sara contradicted, "You already have. I can't do this to myself again; I can't worry about whether or not I come first. I want more than that, Gil. I want someone emotionally **and** physically. You can't give me what you can't provide."

"But Sara—"

"I'm sorry, Gil."

Quickly, Sara turned her back on Grissom and opened the front door to her apartment complex. Tears streaming freely down her reddened face, she quickened her pace to her sanctuary at the end of the hall. She was pushed to the limit, and she felt terrible for leaving him like that. Yet, the better part of her knew that he could survive, that **she** wasn't what he needed either. She reached the entrance to her own apartment, quieting her sobs before sliding into the black room. She crept to the bathroom, and splashed cool water on her face.

_I wanted him_, Sara thought to herself, _but now I don't. He waited too long, and I couldn't stay for him. He couldn't give me what I need._

She wiped her face off with the cool, cotton-feel of her hand towel, and slowly stripped off her navy sweater and pinstripe pants. She stopped at the basin once more, turning on the faucet. She cupped her hands together and drank the refreshing tap water, dousing the flames that had consumed the inside of her throat. She dried her hands and ran them through the silky softness of her brown hair, calming her down. She stared at herself in the mirror, clad in only blue underwear and a matching bra. Having neglected to turn on the lights surrounding her mirror, she was only bathed in the weak sunlight of the small window in the whole room. Although she could barely see herself, she could feel the change of the night. She knew her decision was right, and that she didn't need Grissom clouding her mind anymore.

She slowly skulked across the wood floor of her hallway, stopping to push open her door. She stretched her body the best she could, maneuvering in an effort to rid herself of her inner tension. She checked to make sure that her black curtains blocked the shield of the ever-encroaching sun. She grabbed the oversized shirt on the bedpost and quickly changed, throwing her bra into the dark depths of the rest of the room. She had a long night, and cleanliness was the last thing on her list. She slid under the silky-soft sheets of her bed, and rolled onto her side to think about her night.

As if on cue, another body stirred from the opposite side of the bed, and rolled over in half-asleep instinct, grabbing Sara's waist possessively and nuzzling into the side of her neck.

"Long shift?" a breathy voice floated into Sara's ear; she couldn't help but smile sweetly.

"The worst." She replied in a soft voice, relishing in the feel of his strong arms around her. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah," He assured, pausing to trace circles at the small of her back, "What happened?"

"Someone professed his love to me, told me that he'd give me the world and protect me from the world the best way he knew how." Knowing the look on his face without even turning around, Sara gave her boyfriend a gentle squeeze on the arm, promising him that he had no competition to speak of.

"Well," he responded, "I hope you told them that your man, Nick Stokes, has already given you such, and you're quite happy." He smiled behind her, losing himself in the flowery smell of her hair. She couldn't help but grin, even though her emotional control was wearing thin and she'd been through so much.

"That I did," Sara said, turning to kiss Nick on the forehead. Slowly they drifted off to a peaceful, loving sleep.

Sara had waited so long for Grissom to come around that when he had, he hadn't taken the time to notice that she'd moved on. The passing of the years drove a wedge between the connection that Sara and Grissom created; she couldn't stall for him to catch up and she moved on. Someone was protecting her now, for real. Sara wasn't a puzzle to Nick, and she wasn't evidence.

She was his only, and she **liked** that.

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Teeehehehe...you should've known I wouldn't write GSR! 

Fame or Flame, I take it all...Review plzkthnx!


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